Martial Law
by Weskette
Summary: Martial Law has been declared and the geth are being destroyed. There is no mercy shown; only a small group of quarians have stood against it. The protesters suffer for this though, as do their geth. One young quarian finds herself cornered by the police, injured, and trying to save her geth friend.


******AU placing Tali and Legion on Rannoch during the death sentence to the geth; related to geth server quest. Cover art by me (Weskette on tumblr, Izzy-the-Rabbit on Deviantart).**

**Martial Law**

"Quickly, Legion. In here." Tali pushed open the door to the small abandoned building and ushered the geth inside. The motion was frantic and Legion seemed confused. "We have to hurry…" She could hear their pursuers not far behind.

"Creator Zorah. This unit does not understand."

"Just go," she said sadly. Tali didn't understand either. The geth were helpers. Geth was very literally translated to "servant of the people". They were faithful to whoever did maintenance on them. Her own unit she was attached to. She had even given it a name.

Legion had become hers through her father. He had made a gift of Legion to her after she had reached maturity and moved from the house to her own. Though originally being a bit nervous have her own geth, she quickly grew used to it. Legion grew accustomed to what she needed, at times acting without orders to do something she needed. She had never meant to grow attached to it, but she had. It was a part of her life and deserved to have a chance to live.

"There they are!" a voice shouted behind her. She slammed the door shut, but not before a bullet pierced into her side.

She cried out, but stayed standing. With one hand over her wound, she began to move objects in front of the door. Legion moved to help her, though it wasn't sure what was happening. "Thank you," she spoke to it.

"Creator Zorah, this unit does not understand."

"I know, Legion, I know. Everything will be alright, I promise." She tried to move, but it turned from a step into a cringe. She fell back, hitting the barricade they had created. She slid down, red gushing from the hole in her torso. "I promise…"

"You are injured. We must assist." The geth kneeled before her.

A voice came from outside. "Release the rogue geth unit!" It was a police officer, one of many that were coming after them. "We know you have one!"

Tali scowled. "Damned idiots. Geth won't harm quarians unless quarians harm geth." She pushed Legion's hands away. "I'm fine. We have to go." She tried to stand but pain overcame her and she fell back again.

The voice from outside sounded again. "I repeat: Release rogue geth units and come out of the safe house. This is your final warning."

Tali could tell they were close. She had to get Legion somewhere safe.

"Creator Zorah?" Legion spoke. "This unit does not understand. It has not taken part in hostilities."

She gritted her teeth, readying herself to stand. "It doesn't matter to them. I need to get you out of here." She'd die before she let them kill Legion.

Legion stood. "This conflict exceeds creator safety parameters. We will surrender our hardware if it ends hostilities."

Tali had expected as much. Legion was loyal to her, she knew that. Geth had developed mentally somehow. They were free of constraint and were learning every day. They were people too. They were alive.

Each unit had a soul.

She shook her head. "No, it's alright. We'll go to the access tunnels and—"

There was an explosion, a blast that destroyed the safe house. Smoke billowed up, keeping the police officers from immediately approaching. There was only one figure left in the rubble.

"Creator Zorah, What is your status?" It moved forward. "Creator Zorah?" It searched in the debris for her. Its programming told it to stay with her. Its hardware was not important; there were back up files of it. As long as it ensured its creator's safety, it had done its job.

"Move in!" the head officer called out.

The small group spanned out, searching for anything that had survived. If the protestor had survived, she would be jailed. Any surviving geth would be "put out of service".

"Over here!" came the voice of one of the officers.

The three surrounded what had been found.

Legion sat before them. He was beside the largest pile of rubble. Red ran out from beneath it. And from beneath one large piece of rubble, a hand could be seen. It lay open, two slender fingers unmoving and and stained from the blood that had gushed from a gunshot wound only minutes prior.

Legion looked up at the officers. "This unit has failed its programming. This unit must be shut down."

"Agreed," the head policeman spoke.

In one shot, the lights on Legion's body went out.


End file.
